Politics

ZAGREB, August 30, 2019 - The leader of Croats in Serbia, Tomislav Žigmanov, said on Thursday the "inappropriate" statements by Croatian and Serbian officials after last week's attacks on ethnic Serbs in Croatia were straining relations between the two countries and detrimental to Croats in Serbia. "Ethnically motivated violence against members of the Serb community in the vicinity of Knin prompted inappropriate statements on both sides and they weren't in the function of defusing tensions and finding solutions," the president of the Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina said on Twitter. Žigmanov said those statements increased the fear in the…

ZAGREB, August 30, 2019 - The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) on Thursday asked Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić to apologise for a sexist attack on N1 Television reporter Matea Dominiković, calling on journalists and editors to boycott Bandić's public appearances. The HND strongly condemned Bandić's latest sexist outburst and joined journalists in their request that he apologise. The HND said that with his latest comments, Bandić, who is also the president of the BM 365 Work and Solidarity Party, did not want to humiliate only Dominiković but journalists in general, and that this was not his first shameful outburst before the…

ZAGREB, August 30, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Thursday he met with Independent Democratic Serb Party president Milorad Pupovac, that he understood his concern about recent attacks on Serbs, that he expected the perpetrators to be punished, and that there was no climate of intolerance towards ethnic minorities in Croatia. "We met and we talked," Plenković told reporters in Varazdin, adding that Pupovac "expressed his concern about these incidents, and I understand him as he is a representative of the Serb minority." Plenković reiterated that it was his choice that ethnic minorities should be part of the…

ZAGREB, August 29, 2019 - The Office of the Chief State Prosecutor (DORH) has sent a request to the national parliament that a lawmaker, Lovro Kuščević, be stripped of his parliamentary immunity due to suspicion that he committed abuse of office and powers, the parliament's Credentials and Privileges Commission (MIP) said on Thursday. The commission's chairman, Željko Tušek, explained that he would convene a meeting for Friday so that the MIP can discuss the DORH request to be given the green light to launch an investigation into Kuščević who is believed to have been implicated in several real estate murky…

ZAGREB, August 29, 2019 - The union initiative against raising retirement age, called "67 is too much" has collected a sufficient number of signatures for a referendum to be called about the Pension Act, the Public Administration Ministry advised at a cabinet meeting on Thursday. The government endorsed the report submitted by the ministry regarding the signature collection procedure and forwarded the report into parliamentary procedure. The initiative collected almost twice the number of signatures required to call a referendum. The ministry determined that 708,713 valid signatures had been collected. In order for a pension eligibility conditions referendum to be…

ZAGREB, August 29, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday stated that the protection of the rights of the Serb minority in Croatia was regulated according to the highest European standards and that the government remained committed to developing a tolerant and conflict-free social climate. Plenković said at a cabinet meeting that the protection of minority rights in line with the highest standards is the legacy of the first Croatian president Franjo Tuđman. Hence, he added, it is important that everyone in Croatia acts responsibly and all are supposed to "create an atmosphere that is tolerant and conflict-free", otherwise,…

ZAGREB, August 29, 2019 - Slovenia's President Borut Pahor on Wednesday confirmed that he would attend the 6th edition of regular Trilateral Meetings of the presidents of Croatia, Slovenia and Austria that will be held in Šibenik next Wednesday, Slovenia's media have reported. These regular trilateral meetings are aimed at strengthening relations and cooperation in a narrower regional format and the current theme of the meeting in Šibenik will be the future of the European Union particularly in light of the recent European election and other European and international topics, Pahor's office said in a press release. Presidents Pahor, Alexander…

ZAGREB, August 29, 2019 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Wednesday visited the eastern Croatian town of Županja and on that occasion he said that 10.7 billion kuna (€1.45 billion) had been engaged through the Slavonia project in the last three years. Plenković recalled that three years ago, his cabinet had decided during a meeting in the biggest eastern city of Osijek to invest more efforts to help the five Slavonia counties to boost their development. "In less than three years, we have engaged 10.7 billion kuna through the project," Plenković said adding that the region would remain a priority…

ZAGREB, August 29, 2019 - A rally in support of Matko Škalamera, who was accused by a 70-year-old man of having hurt him based on his ethnicity, was held outside the jail in Rijeka on Wednesday evening, bringing together about 2,000 people, according to some estimates. The rally, which was announced by a local group of fans of the Rijeka football club on Tuesday evening, took place today as planned, although earlier in the day Škalamera was released from investigative custody. One of the leaders of the fan group, Đoni Božić, said that they had come outside the prison to…

ZAGREB, August 28, 2019 - Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) president Milorad Pupovac would not comment on Wednesday on Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's assessment that Pupovac's comparison of Croatia with the WWII Nazi-styled Independent State of Croatia and calling it a factor of instability in the region was inappropriate and unacceptable. "We won't make statements until we have discussed and analysed everything," Pupovac told Hina, declining to comment on Plenković's assessment and the widespread condemnation of his statements in Croatia. "We consider extremely inappropriate, even unacceptable, the statements by our coalition partner that would point to the conclusion that Croatia…